BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

<> 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


BANG  P.. 
LIBRARY 

PROCEEDINGS  IN  MASS  MEETING 


OF  THE 


LADIES  OF  SALT  LAKE  CITY 


TO 


PEOTEST  AGAINST  THE  PASSAGE  OF  CULLOM'S  BILL, 

JANUARY   14,  1870. 


r 


Notwithstanding  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather,  the  Tabernacle  was  densely  packed 
with  ladies  of  all  ages,  old,  young,  and  middle 
aged. 

On  the  motion  of  Sister  Eliza  R.  Snow,  Mrs. 
Sarah  N.  Kimball,  President  of  the  Female 
Relief  Society  of  the  fifteenth  ward,  was  elected 
president  of  the  meeting. 

Mrs.  Lydia  Alder  was  appointed  secretary 
of  the  meeting. 

The  following  ladies  were  proposed  and 
unanimously  sustained  as  a  committee  to  draft 
resolutions  : 

Mrs.  M.  T.  Smoot,  president  twentieth  ward 
F.  M.  S.;  Mrs.  M.  N.  Hyde,  president  seven- 
"•  teenth  ward  F.  M.  S.;  Mrs.  Isabella  Horn, 
president  fourteenth  ward  F.  M.  S.;  Mrs.  Mary 
Leaver,  president  eighth  ward  F.  M.  S.;  Mrs. 
Prise.  Staiues,  president  twelfch  ward  F.  M.  S.; 
Mrs.  Rachel  Grunt,  president  thirteenth  ward 
F.  M.  S. 

Mrs.  Kimball,  in  rising  to  address  the  meet- 
ing, said  she  desired  the  prayers  of  all  present 
that  she  might  be  enabled  to  express  herself  in 
a  comprehensive  manner.  They  were  there 
to  speak  in  relation  to  the  Government  and 
institutions  under  which  they  lived,  and  she 
;  would  ask,  Have  we  transgressed  any  law  of 
'•;  the  United  States?  [Loud  "No!"  from  the 
*"^  audience.]  Then,  why  are  we  here  to-day? 
,7.  We  have  been  driven  from  place  to  place,  and 
y*rwhy?  Simply  for  believing  in  and  practicing 
."-  the  counsels  of  God  as  contained  in  the  gospel 
; .:]  of  Heaven.  The  object  of  that  meeting  was  to 
consider  the  justice  of  a  bill  now  before  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States.  She  said,  "We 
;:  are  not  here  to  advocate  woman's  rights,  but 
man's  rights."  The  bill  in  question  would  not 
only  deprive  our  fathers,  husbands,  and  broth- 
ers of  enjoying  the  privileges  bequeathed  to 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  but  it  would  also 
deprive  us,  as  women,  of  the  privilege  of  select- 
ing our  husbands,  and  against  this  we  most 
unqualifiedly  protest. 

While  the  committee  on  resolutions  were 
absent,  speeches  were  made  by  various  ladies, 
the  first,  as  follows,  being  delivered  by 

BATHSHEBA   W.  SMITH. 

Beloved  sisters  and  friends:  It  is  with  no 
ordinary  feelings  that  I  meet  with  you  on  the 
present  occasion.  From  my  early  youth  I  have 
been  identified  with  the  Latter-day  Saints  ; 
hence  I  have  been  an  eye  and  ear-witness  to 
many  of  the  scenes  that  have  been  inflicted  upon 


our  people  by  a  spirit  of  intolerant  persecu- 
tion. I  watched  by  the  bedside  of  the  first  apos- 
tle, David  W.  Patten,  who  fell  a  martyr  in  the 
church.  He  was  a  noble  soul.  He  was  shot 
by  a  mob  while  defending  the  Saints  in  the 
State  of  Missouri,  Ray  county,  on  the  25th  of 
October,  1838.  As  brother  Patten's  life-blood 
oozed  away,  I  stood  by  and  heard  his  dying 
testimony  to  the  truth  of  our  holy  religion, 
declaring  himself  to  be  a  ff  iend  to  all  mankind. 
He  sacrificed  his  life  freely  to  defend  the  inno- 
cent. He  had  no  feelings  of  "hostility  to  his 
race,  but  labored  to  exalt  them.  His  last 
words,  addressed  to  his  wife,  were,  "  What- 
ever you  do,  oh  !  do  not  deny  the  faith."  This 
circumstance  made  a  lasting  impression  upon 
my  youthful  mind.  In  Missouri  mobs  were 
burning  houses  and  killing  the  Saints,  when  an 
army  was  sent  by  Governor  Boggs,  which  we 
supposed  had  come  to  protect  us  ;  but,  alas ! 
time  proved  that  it  came  to  continue  the  same 
dreadful  work,  reducing  the  whole  people  from 
competence  to  extreme  poverty,  sending  them 
forth  under  an  exterminating  order,  in  mid- 
winter, two  hundred  miles  across  bleak  prairies, 
among  strangers  in  a  strange  State,  leaving 
their  homes  and  property  to  be  possessed  by 
their  persecutors. 

I  was  intimately  acquainted  with  the  life 
and  ministry  of  our  beloved  prophet  and  patri- 
arch, Joseph  and  Hyrum  Smith.  I  know  that 
they  were  pure  men,  who  labored  for  the  re- 
demption of  the  human  family.  For  six  years 
I  heard  their  public  and  private  teachings.  It 
was  from  their  lips  that  I  heard  taught  the 
principle  of  celestial  marriage ;  and  when  I 
saw  their  mangled  forms  cold  in  death,  having 
been  slain  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus  by  the 
hands  of  cruel  bigots,  in  defense  of  law,  jus- 
tice, and  executive  pledges,  and  although  this 
was  a  scene  of  barbarous  cruelty,  which  can 
never  be  erased  from  those  who  witnessed  the 
heart-rending  cries  of  widows  and  orphans,  and 
mingled  their  tears  with  those  of  thousands  of 
witnesses  of  the  mournful  occasion,  the  memo- 
ries of  which  I  hardly  feel  willing  to  awaken, 
yet  I  realized  that  they  had  sealed  their  min- 
istry with  their  blood,  and  that  their  testimony 
was  in  force. 

On  the  9th  day  of  February,  1846,  the  mid- 
dle of  a  cold  and  bleak  winter,  my  husband, 
just  rising  from  a  bed  of  sickness,  and  I,  iu 
company  with  thousands  of  Saints,  were  driven 
again  from  our  comfortable  home,  the  accumu- 
lation of  six  years'  industry  and  prudence,  and 


with  two  little  children  commenced  a  long  and 
weary  journey  through  a  wilderness,  over  prai- 
ries, deserts,  and  mountains,  to  seek  another 
home,  for  a  wicked  mob  had  decreed  we  must 
leave.  Governor  Ford,  of  Illinois,  said  the 
laws  were  powerless  to  protect  us.  Exposed 
to  the  cold  of  winter  and  the  storms  of  spring, 
we  continued  our  journey  amid  want  and  ex- 
posure, burying  by  the  wayside  a  dear  mother, 
a  son,  and  many  kind  friends  and  relatives. 

We  reached  the  Missouri  river  in  July.  Here 
our  country  thought  proper  to  make  a  requi- 
sition upon  us  for  a  battalion  to  defend  our 
national  flag  in  the  war  pending  with  Mexico. 
We  responded  promptly,  many  of  my  kindred 
stepping  forward  and  performing  a  journey 
characterized  by  their  commanding  officer  as 
"unparalleled  in  history."  With  the  most 
of  our  youth  and  middle-aged  men  gone,  we 
could  not  proceed  ;  hence  we  were  compelled 
to  make  another  home,  which,  though  humble, 
approaching  winter  made  very  desirable.  In 
1847-48  all  who  weraable,  through  selling  their 
surplus  property,  proceeded  ;  we  who  remained 
were  told  by  an  unfeeling  Indian  department 
we  must  vacate  our  houses  and  recross  the  Mis- 
souri river,  as  the  laws  would  not  permit  us  to 
remain  on  Indian  lands.  We  obeyed,  and  again 
made  a  new  home,  though  only  a  few  miles  dis- 
tant. The  latter  home  we  abandoned  in  1849, 
for  the  purpose  of  joining  our  coreligionists 
in  the  then  far-off  region  denominated  on  the 
maps  "The  Great  Desert,"  and  by  some  later 
geographers  as  "  Eastern  Upper  California." 
In  this  isolated  country  we  made  new  homes, 
and  for  a  time  contended  with  the  crickets  for 
a  scanty  subsistence.  The  rude,  ignorant,  and 
almost  nude  Indians  were  a  heavy  tax  upon 
us  while  struggling  again  to  make  comfortable 
homes  and  improvements;  yet  we  bore  it  all 
without  complaint,  for  we  were  buoyed  up  with 
the  happy  reflections  that  we  were  so  distant, 
and  had  found  an  asylum  in  such  an  undesir- 
able country  as  to  strengthen  us  in  the  hope 
that  our  homes  would  not  be  coveted,  and  that 
should  we,  through  the  blessing  of  God,  suc- 
ceed in  planting  our  own  vine  and  fig-tree,  no 
one  could  feel  heartless  enough  to  withhold 
from  us  that  religious  liberty  which  we  had 
sought  in  vain  among  our  former  neighbors. 

Without  recapitulating  our  recent  history — 
the  development  of  a  people  whose  industry 
and  morality  have  extracted  eulogy  from  their 
most  bitter  traducers — I  cannot  but  express 
my  surprise,  mingled  with  regret  and  indigna- 
tion, at  the  recent  proceedings  of  ignorant, 
bigoted,  and  unfeeling  men,  headed  by  the 
Vice  President,  to  aid  intolerant  sectarians 
and  reckless  speculators,  who  seek  for  pro- 
scription and  plunder,  and  who  feel  willing  to 
rob  the  inhabitants  of  these  valleys  of  their 
hard-earned  possessions,  and  what  is  dearer,  the 
constitutional  boo-n  of  religious  liberty. 

The  following  is  a  verbatim  report  of  the 
remarks  of  the  next  speaker : 

MRS.  LEVI  RITER. 

In  rising  before  this  vast  assembly  my  heart 
is  filled  with  feelings  that  words  cannot  express. 


We  have  not  met  here,  my  beloved  sisters,  as 
women  of  other  States  and  Territories  meet, 
to  complain  of  the  wrongs  and  abuses  inflicted 
upon  us  by  our  husbands,  fathers,  and  sons  ; 
but  we  are  happy  and  proud  to  state  that  we 
have  no  such  afflictions  and  abuses  to  complain 
of.  Neither  do  we  ask  for  the  right  of  franchise ; 
nor  do  we  ask  for  more  law,  more  liberty,  or 
more  rights  and  freedom  from  our  husbands 
and  brothers  ;  for  there  is  no  spot  on  this  wide 
earth  where  kindness  and  affection  are  more 
bestowed  upon  woman  and  her  rights  so  sa- 
credly defended  as  in  Utah.  We  are  here  to 
express  our  love  for  each  other,  and  to  exhibit 
to  the  world  our  devotion  to  God,  our  heavenly 
Father,  and  to  show  our  willingness  to  comply 
with  the  requirements  of  the  gospel ;  and  the 
law  of  celestial  marriage  is  one  of  its  require- 
ments that  we  are  resolved  to  honor,  teach, 
and  practice,  which  may  God  grant  us  strength 
to  do.  ["  Amen!"  from  the  audience.]  And 
that  we  may  have  a  continuation  of  liberty,  I 
ask  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ!  ["Amen!" 
again  by  the  audience.] 

The  resolutions  drafted  by  the  committee 
were  then  presented  and  carried  unanimously, 
being  greeted  with  loud  cheers.  They  were  as 
follows  : 

Resolved,  That  we,  the  ladies  of  Salt  Lake  City,  in 
mass  meeting  assembled, do  manifest  our  indignation, 
and  protest  against  the  bill  before  Congress  known 
as  the  Cullorn  bill,  also  the  one  known  as  the  Cragin 
bill,  and  all  similar  bills,  expressions,  and  mani- 
festoes. 

Resolved,  That  we  consider  the  above-named  bills 
foul  blots  on  our  national  escutcheon,  absurd  docu- 
ments, atrocious  insults  to  the  honorabla  Executive 
of  the  United  States  Government,  find  malicious 
attempts  to  subvert  the  rights  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty. 

Resolved,  That  we  do  hold  sacred  the  Constitution 
bequeathed  us  by  our  forefathers,  and  ignore  with 
laudable  womanly  jealousy  every  act  of  those  men 
to  whom  the  responsibilities  of  government  have  been 
intrusted,  which  is  calculated  to  destroy  its  efficacy. 

ReKolved,  That  we  unitedly  exercise  every  moral 
power  and  every  right  which  we  inherit  as  the 
daughters  of  American  citizens,  to  prevent  the  pas- 
snge  of  such  bills;  knowing  that  they  would  inevita- 
bly cast  a  stigma  on  our  republican  Government  by 
jeopardizing  the  liberty  and  lives  of  its  most  loyal 
and  peaceable  citizens. 

Resolved,  That,  in  our  candid  opinion,  the  pre- 
sentation of  the  aforesaid  bills  indicates  a  manifest 
degeneracy  of  the  great  rnen  of  our  nation;  and  their 
adoption  would  presage  a  speedy  downfall  and  ulti- 
mate extinction  of  the  glorious  pedestal  of  Freedom, 
Protection,  and  Equal  Rights  established  by  our 
noble  ancestors. 

Resolved,  That  we  acknowledge  the  institutions 
of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints 
as  the  only  reliable  safeguard  of  female  virtue  and 
innocence,  and  the  only  sure  protection  against  the 
fearful  sin  of  prostitution  and  its  attendant  evils, 
now  prevalent  abroad,  and,  as  such,  %yo  are  and 
shall  be  united  with  our  brethren  in  sustaining  them 
against  each  and  every  encroachment. 

Resolved,  That  we  consider  the  originators  of  the 
aforesaid  bills  disloyal  to  the  Constitution  and  un- 
worthy of  any  position  of  trust  in  any  office  which 
involves  the  interests  of  our  nation. 

Resolved,  That  in  case  the  bills  in  question  should 
pass  both  Houses  of  Congress  and  become  a  law,  by 
which  we  shall  be  disfranchised  as  a  Territory,  we,  • 
the  ladies  of  Salt  Lake  City,  shall  exert  all  our  power 
and  influence  to  aid  in  the  support  of  our  own  State 
government. 

The  meeting  was  addressed  by  several  other 
speakers,  whose  remarks  are  given  below  in  the 
order  in  which  they  were  delivered. 


3 


MRS.  SMITH, 

relict  of  Elder  Warren  Smith,  who  was  mur- 
dered at  Haun's  Mill,  then  spoke  : 

Sisters,  as  I  sat  upon  my  seat  listening, 
it  seemed  as  though  if  I  held  my  peace  the 
stones  of  the  streets  would  cry  out.  With  your 
prayers  aiding  me  I  will  try  and  make  a  few 
remarks. 

I  obeyed  the  gospel  on  the  1st  day  of  April, 
1831,  almost  thirty-nine  years  ago  ;  and  I  have 
been  in  the  midst  of  this  people  ever  since.  I 
have  seen  their  travels,  their  sorrows,  their 
afflictions.  I  have  seen  the  mourning  and 
sorrow  of  this  people  in  their  calamities,  and 
many  is  the  time  my  heart  has  been  pained  at 
the  scenes  of  distress  I  have  witnessed.  I 
moved  to  Kirtland  with  my  husband,  a  good 
man  and  a  faithful  elder  in  Israel.  He  moved 
his  family  to  Kirtland  and  bought  a  beautiful 
place,  but  he  could  not  live  on  it.  Our  per- 
secutors said  we  must  not  stay  there.  We  sold 
our  beauliful  home  for  a  song,  and  we  had  to 
sing  it  ourselves.  We  traveled  all  summer  to 
Missouri,  our  teams  poor,  and  with  hardly 
enough  to  keep  body  and  soul  together.  We 
landed  in  Caldwell  county,  near  Haun's  Mill, 
nine  wagons  of  us  in  company.  Two  days 
before  we  landed  there  we  were  taken  pris- 
oners by  an  armed  mob  that  demanded  every 
bit  of  ammunition  and  every  weapon  we  had. 
We  surrendered  them ;  gave  up  all.  They 
knew  it,  for  they  searched  our  wagons.  A 
few  miles  more  brought  us  to  Haun's  Mill, 
where  that  awful  scene  of  murder  was  enacted. 
My  husband  pitched  his  tent  by  a  blacksmith's 
shop. 

If  I  mistake  not,  Brother  David  Evans  had 
made  a  treaty  with  the  mob  that  they  would 
not  molest  us.  He  came  in  and  called  the  com- 
pany together,  and  they  knelt  in  prayer.  I 
sat  in  my  tent,  and  looking  out  saw  the  mob 
coming,  the  same  thattookaway  our  weapons. 
They  came  like  so  many  demons  or  wild  In- 
dians. Before  I  could  get  to  the  blacksmith's 
shop  door  to  tell  them,  the  bullets  were  whist- 
ling among  them.  Among  those  who  fell  were 
my  husband  and  a  son,  and  one  beautiful  boy, 
now  here,  a  man  in  your  midst,  was  wounded 
worse  than  death.  I  was  obliged  to  stay  on 
that  awful  ground  all  that  night  to  take  care 
of  my  poor  children.  Another  sister  who  had 
a  son  wounded  stayed  there  all  night  with  me. 
The  scene  was  terrible  beyond  description. 
One  poor  brother  was  lying  in  the  shop  and 
could  not  be  moved  ;  and  the  moans  of  the 
dying  and  wounded  were  heart-rending.  Our 
enemies  were  not  far  off,  and  we  did  not  know 
but  that  they  would  return.  Next  morning 
brother  Joseph  Young  came  to  see  what  could 
be  done.  He  inquired  what  should  be  done 
with  the  dead,  as  there  was  not  time  to  bury 
them  ;  for  the  mob  was  coming  upon  us,  and 
there  were  not  men  to  dig  the  graves.  I  said, 
anything  but  leaving  their  bodies  to  the  fiends 
that  had  killed  them.  There  was  a  deep,  dry 
well  close  by,  and  into  this  the  bodies  had  to 
be  hurried,  seventeen  in  number,  some  head 
downward  and  some  feet  downward. 
And  this  was  in  America — in  the  land  of 


liberty  and  freedom,  that  boasts  of  the  rights 
guarantied  to  its  citizens  !  We  are  here  to-day 
to  say  if  such  scenes  shall  be  again  enacted  in 
our  midst — I  say  to  you,  my  sisters,  you  are 
American  citizens — let  us  stand  by  the  truth 
if  we  die  for  it.  [Applause.] 

MRS.  WILMARTH  EAST. 

It  is  with  feelings  of  pleasure,  mingled  with 
indignation  and  disgust,  that  I  appear  before 
you,  my  sisters,  to  express  my  feelings  in 
regard  to  the  Cullom  bill  now  before  the  Con- 
gress of  this  once  happy  and  republican  Gov- 
ernment. The  Constitution  for  which  our 
forefathers  fought  and  bled  and  died  bequeaths 
to  us  the  right  of  religious  liberty,  the  right  to 
worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  our 
own  consciences.  Does  the  Cullom  bill  give 
us  this  right?  Compare  it  with  the  Constitu- 
tion if  you  please,  and  see  what  a  disgrace  has 
come  upon  this  once  happy  and  republican 
Government!  Where,  oh !  where,  is  that  liberty 
bequeathed  to  us  by  our  forefathers,  the  richest 
boon  ever  given  to  man  or  woman,  except 
eternal  life  or  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  ? 
I  am  an  American  citizen  by  birthright,  and 
having  lived  above  the  laws  of  the  land,  I  claim 
the  right  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dic- 
tates of  my  own  conscience  and  the  command- 
ments that  God  shall  give  unto  me.  Our 
Constitution  guaranties  "life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness"  to  all  who  live  beneath 
it.  What  is  life  to  me  if  I  see  the  galling 
yoke  of  oppression  placed  upon  the  necks  of 
my  husband,  sons,  and  brothers,  as  Mr.  Cul- 
lom would  have  it  ?  I  am  proud  to  say  to  you 
that  I  am  not  only  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  of  America  but  a  citizen  of  the  kingdom 
of  God,  and  the  laws  of  this  kingdom  I  am 
willing  to  sustain  and  defend  both  by  example 
and  precept.  I  am  thankful  to-day  that  I  have 
the  privilege  of  living  the  religion  of  Jesus  our 
Saviour.  I  am  thankful  to-day  that  I  have  the 
honored  privilege  of  being  the  happy  recipient 
of  one  of  the  greatest  principles  ever  revealed 
to  man  for  his  redemption  and  exaltation  in 
the  kingdom  of  God,  namely,  plurality  of 
wives  ;  and  I  am  thankful  to-day  that  I  know 
God  is  at  the  helm  and  will  defend  his  people. 

MRS.  KIMBALL 

felt  thankful  to  be  numbered  with  this  peo- 
ple. We  feel  to  honor  God  and  the  gospel 
communicated  to  us.  She  was  sorry  that  Con- 
gress is  engaged  in  framing  measures  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  Latter-day  Saints.  She  prayed 
that  the  spirit  and  feelings  of  that  audience 
might  be  felt  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  and  that  any  measures  that  are  calcu- 
lated to  bring  evil  upon  this  community  might 
be  thwarted,  and  that  Congress  will  be  made 
to  see  the  injustice  of  such  measures  as  those 
contemplated  by  the  Cullom  bill  against  good, 
honest,  virtuous,  and  loyal  citizens,  such  as 
are  the  people  of  Utah. 

MRS.  M'MIJTff 

could  not  refrain  from  expressing  herself  in 
unison  with  her  sisters  and  her  indignation  at 
the  bill.  She  was  an  American  citizen.  Her 


father  had  fought  through  the  Revolution  with 
General  Washington,  and  she  claimed  the 
exercise  of  the  liberty  for  which  he  had  fought. 
She  was  proud  of  being  a  Latter-day  Saint. 

In  answer  to  an  inquiry  she  stated  that  she 
was  nearly  eighty-five  years  of  age. 

E.  R.  sxow. 

My  sisters,  in  addressing  you  at  this  time, 
I  realize  that  the  occasion  is  a  peculiar  and 
interesting  one.  We  are  living  in  a  land  of 
freedom,  under  a  Constitution  that  guaranties 
civil  and  religious  liberty  to  all  black  and  white 
Christians,  Jews,  Mohamedans,  and  Pagans ; 
and  how  strange  it  is  that  such  considerations 
should  exist  as  those  which  have  called  us 
together  this  afternoon. 

Under  the  proud  banner  which  now  waves 
from  ocean  to  ocean,  strange  as  it  may  seem, 
we  who  have  ever  been  loyal  citizens  have  been 
persecuted  from  time  to  time  and  driven  from 
place  to  place  until  at  last,  beyond  the  bounds 
of  civilization,  under  the  guidance  of  President 
Young,  we  found  an  asylum  of  peace  in  the 
midst  of  these  mountains. 

There  are  at  times  small  and  apparently 
trivial  events  in  the  lives  of  individuals  with 
which  every  other  event  naturally  associates. 
There  are  circumstances  in  the  history  of  na- 
tions which  serve  as  centers,  around  which 
everything  else  revolves. 

The  entrance  of  our  brave  pioneers  and  the 
settlement  of  the  Latter-day  Saints  in  these 
mountain  vales,  which  then  were  only  barren, 
savage  wilds,  are  incidents  with  which  not  only 
our  own  future  but  the  future  of  the  whole 
world  is  deeply  associated. 

Here  they  struggled  with  more  than  mortal 
energy,  for  their  hearts  and  hands  were  nerved 
by  the  spirit  of  the  Most  High,  and  through 
His  blessing  they  succeeded  in  drawing  suste- 
nance from  the  arid  soil ;  and  here  they  erected 
the  standard  on  which  the  star-spangled  ban- 
ner waved  its  salutations  of  welcome  to  the 
nations  of  the  earth  ;  and  although  it  had  been 
stained  with  the  blood  of  innocence  here  it  has 
been  rescued  from  the  withering  touch  of  tyr- 
anny and  oppression  ;  here  it  has  been  honored 
and  respected,  and  here  it  will  be  bequeathed 
unsullied  to  future  generations.  Yes,  that 
' '  dear  old  flag, ' '  which  in  my  girlhood  I  always 
contemplated  with  joyous  pride,  and  to  which 
the  patriotic  strains  of  my  earliest  muse  were 
chanted,  here  floats  triumphantly  on  the  mount- 
ain breeze. 

Our  numbers,  small  at  first,  have  increased 
until  now  we  number  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand,  and  yet  we  are  allowed  only  a  ter- 
ritorial government.  Year  after  year  we  have 
petitioned  Congress  for  what  it  was  our  in- 
alienable right  to  claim,  a  State  government; 
and  year  after  year  our  petitions  have  been 
treated  with  contempt.  Such  treatment  as  we 
have  received  from  our  rulers  has  no  prece- 
dent in  the  annals  of  history. 

And  now,  instead  of  granting  us  our  rights 
as  American  citizens,  bills  are  being  presented 
to  Congress  which  are  a  disgrace  to  men  in 
responsible  stations  professing  the  least  claim 


to  honor  and  magnanimity ;  bills  which,  if 
carried  into  effect,  would  utterly  annihilate  us 
as  a  people.  But  this  will  never  be.  There 
is  too  much  virtue  yet  existing  in  the  nation, 
and,  above  all,  there  is  a  God  in  heaven  whose 
protecting  care  is  over  us,  and  who  takes  cog- 
nizance of  the  acts  of  the  children  of  men. 

My  sisters,  we  have  met  to-day  to  manifest 
our  views  and  feelings  concerning  the  oppress- 
ive policy  exercised  toward  us  by  our  repub- 
lican Government.  Aside  from  all  local  and 
personal  feelings,  to  me  it  is  a  source  of  deep 
regret  that  the  standard  of  American  liberty 
should  have  so  far  swayed  from  its  original 
towering  position  as  to  have  given  rise  to  cir- 
cumstances which  not  only  rendered  such  a 
meeting  opportune  but  absolutely  necessary. 

Heretofore,  while  detraction  and  ridicule 
have  been  poured  forth  in  almost  every  form 
that  malice  could  invent,  while  we  have  been 
misrepresented  by  speech  and  press  and  exhib- 
ited in  every  shade  but  our  true  light,  the  ladies 
of  Utah,  as  a  general  thing,  have  remained 
silent.  Had  not  our  aims  been  of  the  most 
noble  and  exalted  character,  and  had  we  not 
known  that  we  occupied  a  stand-point  far  above 
our  traducers,  we  might  have  returned  volley 
for  volley ;  but  we  have  all  the  time  realized 
that  to  contradict  such  egregious  absurdities 
would  be  a  great  stoop  of  condescension,  far 
beneath  the  dignity  of  those  who  profess  to  be 
saints  of  the  living  God,  and  we  very  unassum- 
ingly applied  to  ourselves  a  saying  of  an  ancient 
apostle  in  writing  to  the  Corinthians,  ' '  Ye  suffer 
fools,  gladl}r,  seeing  that  yourselves  are  wise." 

But  there  is  a  point  at  which  silence  is  no 
longer  a  virtue.  In  my  humble  opinion  we 
have  arrived  at  this  point.  Shall  we,  ought  we 
to  be  silent  when  every  right  of  citizenship, 
every  vestige  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  is  at 
stake?  When  our  husbands  and  sons,  our 
fathers  and  brothers  are  threatened,  being 
either  restrained  in  their  obedience  to  the  com- 
mands of  God  or  incarcerated  year  after  year 
in  the  dreary  confines  of  a  prison,  will  it  be 
thought  presumptuous  for  us  to  speak?  Are 
not  our  interests  one  with  our  brethren?  La- 
dies, this  subject  as  deeply  interests  us  as  them. 
In  the  kingdom  of  God  woman  has  no  interests 
separate  from  those  of  man  ;  all  are  mutual. 

Our  enemies  pretend  that  in  Utah  woman  is 
held  in  a  state  of  vassalage  ;  that  she  does  not 
act  from  choice  but  by  coercion ;  that  we  would 
even  prefer  life  elsewhere  were  it  possible  for 
us  to  make  our  escape.  What  nonsense !  We 
all  know  that  if  we  wished  we  could  leave  at 
any  time — either  to  go  singly  or  we  could  rise 
en  masse,  and  there  is  no  power  here  that  could 
or  would  ever  wish  to  prevent  us. 

I  will  now  ask  this  intelligent  assembly  of 
ladies,  Do  you  know  of  any  place  on  the  face 
of  the  earth  where  woman  has  more  liberty  and 
where  she  enjoys  such  high  and  glorious  priv- 
ileges as  she  does  here  as  a  Latter-day  Saint? 
"Nol"  The  very  idea  of  women  here  in  a 
state  of  slavery  is  a  burlesque  on  good  com- 
mon sense.  The  history  of  this  people,  with 
a  very  little  reflection,  would  instruct  outsiders 
on  this  point ;  it  would  show  at  once  that  the 


part  which  woman  has  acted  in  it  could  never 
have  been  performed  against  her  will.  Amid 
the  many  distressing  scenes  through  which  we 
have  passed,  the  privations  and  hardships  con- 
sequent on  our  expulsion  from  State  to  State, 
and  our  location  in  an  isolated,  barren  wilder- 
ness, the  women  in  this  church  have  performed 
and  suffered  what  could  never  have  been  borne 
and  accomplished  by  slaves. 

And  now,  after  all  that  has  transpired,  can 
our  opponents  expect  us  to  look  on  with  silent 
indifference  and  see  every  vestige  of  that  lib- 
erty for  which  many  of  our  patriotic  grandsires 
fought  and  bled,  that  they  might  bequeath  to 
us,  their  children,  the  precious  boon  of  national 
freedom,  wrested  from  our  grasp  ?  If  so 
they  will  learn  their  mistake,  we  are  ready  to 
inform  them.  They  must  be  very  dull  in  esti- 
mating the  energy  of  female  character  who  can 
persuade  themselves  that  women,  who  for  the 
sake  of  their  religion  left  their  homes,  crossed 
the  plains  with  hand-carts,  or,  as  many  had 
previously  done,  drove  ox,  rnule,  and  horse 
teams  from  Nauvoo  and  from  other  points  when 
their  husbands  and  sons  went  at  their  country's 
call  to  fight  her  battles  in  Mexico — yes,  that 
very  country  which  had  refused  us  protection 
and  from  which  we  were  then  struggling  to 
make  our  escape — I  say,  those  who  think  that 
such  women  and  the  daughters  of  such  women 
do  not  possess  too  much  energy  of  character 
to  remain  passive  and  mute  under  existing  cir- 
cumstances are  "  reckoning  bills  without  their 
host."  To  suppose  that  we  should  not  be 
aroused  when  our  brethren  are  threatened  with 
fines  and  imprisonment  for  their  faith  in  and 
obedience  to  the  laws  of  God  is  an  insult  to 
our  womanly  natures. 

Were  we  the  stupid,  degraded,  heart-broken 
beings  that  we  have  been  represented,  silence 
might  better  become  us ;  but  as  women  of  God, 
women  filling  high  and  responsible  positions, 
performing  sacred  duties,  women  who  stand  not 
as  dictators  but  as  counselors  to  their  husbands, 
and  who,  in  the  purest,  noblest  sense  of  refined 
womanhood,  being  truly  their  helpmates,  we 
not  only  speak  because  we  have  the  right,  but 
justice  and  humanity  demand  that  we  should. 
Instead  of  being  lorded  over  by  tyrannical 
husbands,  we,  the  ladies  of  Utah,  are  already 
in  possession  of  a  privilege  which  many  intel- 
ligent and  high-aiming  ladies  in  the  States  are 
earnestly  seeking ;  i.  e.,  the  right  to  vote.  Al- 
though as  yet  we  have  not  been  admitted  to 
the  common  ballot-box,  to  us  the  right  of  suf- 
frage is  extended  in  matters  of  far  greater  im- 
portance. This  we  say  truthfully,  not  boast- 
ingly ;  and  we  may  say  further  that  if  those 
sensitive  persons  who  profess  to  pity  the  con- 
dition of  the  women  of  Utah  will  secure  unto 
us  those  rights  and  privileges  which  a  just  and 
equitable  administration  of  the  laws  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  guaranties 
to  every  loyal  citizen  they  may  reserve  their 
sympathy  for  objects  more  appreciative. 

My  sisters,  let  us,  inasmuch  as  we  are  free 
to  do  all  that  love  and  duty  prompt,  be  brave 
and  unfaltering  in  sustaining  our  brethren. 
Woman's  faith  can  accomplish  wonders.  Let 


us,  like  the  devout  and  steadfast  Miriam,  assist 
our  brothers  in  upholding  the  hands  of  Moses. 
Like  the  loving  Josephine,  whose  firm  and 
gentle  influence  both  animated  and  soothed 
the  heart  of  Napoleon,  we  will  encourage  and 
assist  the  servants  of  God  in  establishing  right- 
eousness; but,  unlike  Josephine,  never  will 
political  inducements,  threats,  or  persecutions 
prevail  on  us  to  relinquish  our  matrimonial 
ties — they  were  performed  by  the  authority  of 
the  holy  priesthood,  the  efficacy  of  which  ex- 
tends into  eternity.  . 

But  to  the  law  and  to  the  testimony.  Those 
obnoxious,  fratricidal  bills — I  feel  indignant 
at  the  thought  that  such  documents  should 
disgrace  our  national  capital.  The  same 
spirit  that  prompted  Herod  to  seek  the  life  of 
Jesus — the  same  that  drove  our  Pilgrim  Fathers 
to  this  continent,  and  the  same  that  urged  the 
English  Government  to  the  system  of  unrep- 
resented taxation,  which  resulted  in  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  American  Colonies,  is  con- 
spicuous in  those  bills.  If  such  measures  are 
persisted  in  they  will  produce  similar  results. 
They  not  only  threaten  extirpation  to  us,  but 
they  augur  destruction  to  the  Government. 
The  authors  of  those  bills  would  tear  the  Con- 
stitution to  shreds.  They  are  sapping  the  found- 
ation of  American  freedom  ;  they  would  oblit- 
erate every  vestige  of  the  dearest  right  of  man, 
liberty  of  conscience,  and  reduce  our  once 
happy  country  to  a  state  of  anarchy. 

Our  trust  is  in  God.  He  that  led  Israel  from 
the  land  of  Egypt ;  who  preserved  Shadrach, 
Meshach,  and  Abednego  in  the  fiery  furnace  ; 
who  rescued  Daniel  from  the  jaws  of  hungry 
lions, and  who  directed  Brigham  Young  to  these 
mountain  vales,  lives  and  overrules  the  desti- 
nies of  men  and  nations.  He  will  make  the 
wrath  of  man  praise  Him  ;  and  His  kingdom  will 
move  steadily  forward  until  wickedness  shall 
be  swept  from  the  earth,  and  truth,  love,  and 
righteousness  reign  triumphantly. 

HARRIET  COOK  YOUNG. 

In  rising  to  address  this  meeting  delicacy 
prompts  me  to  explain  the  chief  motives  which 
have  dictated  our  present  action.  We,  the 
ladies  of  Salt  Lake  City,  have  assembled  here 
to-day  not  for  the  purpose  of  assuming  any 
particular  political  power,  nor  to  claim  any 
special  prerogative  which  may  or  may  not  be- 
long to  our  sex,  but  to  express  our  indignation 
at  the  unhallowed  efforts  of  men  who,  regard- 
less of  every  principle  of  manhood,  justice,  and 
constitutional  liberty,  would  force  upon  a  reli- 
gious community,  by  a  direct  issue,  either  the 
curse  of  apostasy  or  the  bitter  alternative  of 
fire  and  sword.  Surely  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation,  the  love  of  liberty  and  happiness, 
and  the  right  to  worship  God  are  dear  to  our  sex 
as  well  as  to  the  other;  and  when  these  most 
sacred  of  all  rights  are  thus  wickedly  assailed 
it  becomes  absolutely  our  duty  to  defend  them. 

The  mission  of  the  Latter-day  Saints  is  to 
reform  abuses  which  have  for  ages  corrupted 
the  world,  and  to  establish  an  era  of  peace  and 
righteousness.  The  Most  High  is  the  founder 
of  this  mission,  and  in  order  to  its  establish- 


6 


ment  His  providences  have  so  shaped  the 
world's  history  that  on  this  continent,  blest 
above  all  other  lands,  a  free  and  enlightened 
Government  has  been  instituted,  guarantying 
to  all  social,  political,  and  religious  liberty. 
The  Constitution  of  our  country  is  therefore 
hallowed  to  us,  and  we  view  with  a  jealous 
eye  every  infringement  upon  its  great  princi- 
ples, and  demand,  in  the  sacred  name  of  lib- 
erty, that  the  miscreant  who  would  trample  it 
under  his  feet,  by  depriving  a  hundred  thou- 
sand American  citizens  of  every  vestige  of 
liberty,  should  be  anathematized  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land  as  a  traitor 
to  God  and  his  country. 

It  is  not  strange  that  among  the  bigoted  and 
the  corrupt  such  a  man  and  such  a  measure 
should  have  originated  ;  but  it  will  be  strange 
indeed  if  such  measure  find  favor  with  the 
honorable  and  high-minded  men  who  wield 
the  destinies  of  the  nation.  Let  this  seal  of 
ruin  be  attached  to  the  archives  of  our  country 
and  terrible  must  be  the  results.  Woe  will 
wait  upon  her  steps,  and  sorrow  and  desolation 
will  stalk  through  the  land  ;  peace  and  liberty 
will  seek  another  clime,  while  anarchy,  law- 
lessness, and  bloody  strife  hold  high  carnival 
amid  the  general  wreck.  God  forbid  that 
wicked  men  be  permitted  to  force  such  an  issue 
upon  the  nation ! 

It  is  true  that  a  corrupt  press  and  an  equally 
corrupt  priestcraft  are  leagued  against  us  ;  that 
they  have  pandered  to  the  ignorance  of  the 
masses  and  vilified  our  institutions  to  that 
degree  that  it  has  become  popular  to  believe 
that  the  Latter-day  Saints  are  unworthy  to  live  ; 
but  it  is  also  true  that  there  are  many,  very 
many,  right-thinking  men  who  are  not  without 
influence  in  the  nation,  and  to  such  do  we  now 
solemnly  and  earnestly  appeal.  Let  the  united 
voice  of  this  assembly  give  the  lie  to  the  pop- 
ular clamor  that  the  women  of  Utah  are  op- 
pressed and  held  in  bondage.  Let  the  world 
know  that  the  women  of  Utah  prefer  virtue  to 
vice,  and  the  home  of  an  honorable  wife  to  the 
gilded  pageantry  of  fashionable  temples  of  sin. 
Transitory  allurements,  glaring  to  the  senses 
as  the  flame  is  to  the  moth,  but  short-lived  and 
cruel  in  their  results,  possess  no  charms  for  us. 
Every  woman  in  Utah  may  have  her  husband, 
the  husband  of  her  choice.  Here  we  are  taught 
not  to  destroy  our  children,  but  to  preserve 
them  ;  for  they,  reared  in  the  path  of  virtue 
and  trained  to  righteousness,  constitute  our 
true  glory. 

It  is  with  no  wish  to  accuse  our  sisters  who 
are  not  of  our  faith,  but  we  are  dealing  with 
facts  as  they  exist.  Wherever  monogamy 
reigns,  adultery,  prostitution,  free-love,  and 
foeticide,  directly  or  indirectly,  are  its  con- 
comitants. It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  the 
virtuous  and  the  high-minded  frown  up_on  these 
evils;  we  believe  they  do,  but  frowning  does 
not  cure  them  ;  it  does  not  even  check  their 
rapid  growth.  Either  the  remedy  is  too  weak 
or  the  disease  is  too  strong.  The  women  of 
Utah  comprehend  this,  and  they  see  in  the 
principle  of  a  plurality  of  wives  the  only  safe- 
guard against  adultery,  prostitution,  free-love, 


and  the  reckless  waste  of  prenatal  life  prac- 
ticed throughout  the  land. 

It  is  as  coworkers  in  the  great  mission  of 
universal  reform,  not  only  in  our  own  behalf, 
but  also  by  precept  and  example,  to  aid  in  the 
emancipation  of  our  sex  generally,  that  we 
accept  in  our  heart  of  hearts  what  we  know  to 
be  a  divine  commandment ;  and  here,  and  now, 
boldly  and  publicly  we  do  assert  our  right,  not 
only  to  believe  in  this  holy  commandment,  but 
to  practice  what  we  believe. 

While  these  are  our  views,  every  attempt  to 
force  that  obnoxious  measure  upon  us  racist  of 
necessity  be  an  attempt  to  coerce  us  in  our 
religious  and  moral  convictions,  against  which, 
did  we  not  most  solemnly  protest,  we  would 
be  unworthy  the  name  of  American  women. 

MBS.  H.  T.  KING. 

My  dear  sisters,  I  wish  I  had  the  language 
I  feel  to  need  at  the  present  moment,  to  truly 
represent  the  indignant  feelings  of  my  heart 
and  brain  on  reading  last  evening  a  string  of 
thirty  "sections,"  headed  by  the  words,  "A 
bill  in  aid  of  the  execution  of  the  laws  in  the  Ter- 
ritory of  Utah,  and  for  other  purposes  !"  The 
"other  purposes"  contain  the  pith  of  the  mat- 
ter, and  the  adamantine  chains  the  compilers 
of  the  said  "bill"  seek  to  bind  this  people 
with  exceed  anything  the  feudal  times  of  Eng- 
land or  the  serfdom  of  Russia  ever  laid  npon 
human  beings.  My  sisters,  are  we  really  in 
America,  the  world-renowned  land  of  liberty, 
freedom,  and  equal  rights?  The  land  of  which 
I  dreamed  in  my  youth  as  almost  an  earthly 
elysium,  where  freedom  of  thought  and  reli- 
gious liberty  were  open  to  all?  The  land  that 
Columbus  wore  his  noble  life  out  to  discover? 
The  land  that  God  Himself  helped  him  to  ex- 
hume, and  that  Isabella,  a  queen,  a  woman, 
declared  she  would  pawn  her  jewels  and  crown 
of  Castile  to  give  him  the  outfit  which  he 
needed?  The  land  of  Washington,  the  "  Father 
of  his  Country,"  and  of  a  host  of  noble  spirits 
too  numerous  to  mention?  The  land  to  which 
the  Mayflower  bore  the  Pilgrim  fathers,  who 
rose  up  and  left  their  homes,  and  bade 
their  native  land  "good  night,"  simply  that 
they  might  worship  God  by  a  purer  and  holier 
faith  in  a  land  of  freedom  and  liberty,  of  which 
America  has  long  been  synonymous?  Yes, 
my  sisters,  this  is  America ;  but  oh  !  "  how  are 
the  mighty  fallen  I  " 

Who  is  the  man  who  framed  this  incompar- 
able document?  What  ideas  he  must  have 
of  women  1  Has  he  a  mother,  a  wife,  or  a 
sister?  In  what  academy  was  he  tutored,  or 
to  what  school  does  he  belong,  that  he  should 
so  coolly  and  systematically  command  the 
women  of  this  people  to  turn  traitors  to  their 
husbands,  their  brothers,  and  their  sons  ?  Short- 
sighted man  of  sections  and  the  bill !  Let  us  the 
women  of  this  people,  the  sisterhood  of  Utah, 
rise  en  masse  and  tell  this  man  to  defer  "  the 
bill"  until  he  has  studied  the  character  of 
woman  such  as  God  intended  she  should  be, 
then  he  will  discover  that  devotion,  veneration, 
and  faithfulness  are  her  peculiar  attributes  j 
that  God  is  her  refuge,  and  His  servants  her 


oracles,  and  that  especially  the  women  of  Utah 
have  paid  too  high  a  price  for  their  present 
position, their  present  light  and  knowledge,  and 
their  noble  future,  to  succumb  to  such  meas- 
ures as  this  bill  proposes.  Let  him  learn  that 
they  are  one  in  heart,  hand,  and  brain  with  the 
brotherhood  of  Utah;  that  God  is  their  father 
and  their  friend;  that  into  His  hands  they 
commit  their  cause,  and  on  their  pure  and 
simple  banner  they  have  emblazoned  their 
motto — ''  God  and  my  right." 

PHCEBE  WOODRUFF. 

Ladies  of  Utah,  as  I  have  been  called  upon 
to  express  my  views  upon  the  important  sub- 
ject which  has  called  us  together  this  day,  I. 
will  say  that  I  am  happy  to  be  one  of  your 
number  in  this  association.  I  am  proud  that 
I  am  a  citizen  of  Utah  and  a  member  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 
I  have  been  a  member  of  this  church  for 
thirty-six  years,  and  had  the  privilege  of  living 
in  the  days  of  the  Prophet  Joseph,  and  heard 
his  teachings  for  many  years.  He  ever  coun- 
seled us  to  honor,  obey,  and  maintain  the 
principles  of  our  noble  Constitution,  for  which 
our  fathers  fought,  and  many  of  them  sacri- 
ficed their  lives  to  establish.  President  Brig- 
ham  Young  has  always  taught  the  same  prin- 
ciple. This  glorious  legacy  of  our  fathers, 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  guaran- 
ties unto  all  the  citizens  of  this  great  Republic 
the  right  to  worship  God  according  to  the 
dictates  of  their  owii  consciences,  as  it  ex- 
pressly says: 

"Congress  shall  make  no  laws  respecting  an  estab- 
lishment of  religion  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise 
thereof." 

Cullom's  bill  is  in  direct  violation  of  this 
declaration  of  the  Constitution,  and  I  think 
it  is  our  duty  to  do  all  in  our  power  by  our 
voices  and  influence  to  thwart  the  passage  of 
this  bill,  which  commits  a  violent  outrage 
upon  our  rights  and  the  rights  of  our  fathers, 
husband,  and  sons;  and  whatever  may  be  the 
final  result  of  the  action  of  Congress  in  pass- 
ing or  enforcing  oppressive  laws  for  the  sake 
of  our  religion  upon  the  noble  men  who  have 
subdued  these  deserts,  it  is  our  duty  to  stand 
by  them,  and  support  them  by  our  faith,  pray- 
ers, and  works,  through  every  dark  hour  unto 
the  end,  and  trust  in  the  God  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  to  defend  us,  and  all  who 
are  called  to  suffer  for  keeping  the  command- 
ments of  God.  Shall  we  as  wives  and  mothers 
sit  still  and  see  our  husbands  and  sons,  whom 
we  know  are  obeying  the  highest  behest  of 
Heaven,  suffer  for  their  religion,  without  exert- 
ing ourselves  to  the  extent  of  our  power  for 
their  deliverance?  No!  verily,  no!  God  has 
revealed  unto  us  the  law  of  the  patriarchal 
order  of  marriage,  and  commanded  us  to  obey 
it.  We  are  sealed  to  our  husbands  for  time 
and  eternity,  that  we  may  dwell  with  them 
and  our  children  in  the  world  to  come,  which 
guaranties  unto  us  the  greatest  blessing  for 
which  we  are  created.  If  the  rulers  of  our 
nation  will  so  far  depart  from  the  spirit  and 
the  letter  of  our  glorious  Constitution  as  to 
deprive  our  prophets,  apostles,  and  elders  of 


citizenship,  and  imprison  them  for  obeying 
this  law,  let  them  grant  us  this  our  last  request, 
to  make  their  prisons  large  enough  to  hold 
their  wives,  for  where  they  go  we  will  go  also. 

MRS.  HORNE 

had  been  connected  with  the  church  since  1835, 
and  spoke  her  indignation  at  the  bill.  She  is 
one  of  the  so-called  oppressed  women  of  Utah  ; 
is  the  wife  of  a  man  who  practices  plurality  of 
wives,  and  expects  always  to  sustain  him. 
Whether  the  bill  is  passed  or  not  it  will  be  all 
right  if  the  saints  only  are  faithful  and  true  to 
their  God  and  themselves.  She  thought  if  the 
bill  was  passed  it  would  fill  up  the  cup  of  the 
iniquity  of  the  nation. 

MRS.  ELEANOR  M.  PRATT 

said  she  was  born  in  America,  and  thought  she 
was  free  to  teach  that  which  came  from  God. 
It  is  many  years  since  three  men  in  rags  came 
to  her  home  in  Mississippi,  and  by  the  Bible 
she  held  they  proved  to  her  Joseph  Smith  was 
a  prophet  of  God.  Eleven  years  after  she  heard 
the  same  principles  in  California  and  received 
them.  For  so  doing  she  was  turned  out  of 
doors,  her  children  were  taken  from  her  twice, 
and  innocent  blood  was  shed.  She  longed  to 
see  the  women  of  Utah  rise  and  express  them- 
selves concerning  their  rights.  When  she  saw 
innocent  blood  shed  like  as  in  a  slaughter- 
house she  did  not  fear  as  much  as  to-day.  God 
gave  her  strength,  and  the  officers  and  the  sol- 
diers trembled  at  the  power  God  gave  her. 
Fear  falls  on  the  enemies  of  the  saints  because 
the  women  of  Utah  do  not  fear  death  ;  and  she 
was  willing  to  let  her  blood  be  shed  for  the 
principles  of  truth,  but  not  for  any  ignoble 
purpose. 

ELIZA  R.  sxow. 

My  sisters,  my  remarks  in  conclusion  will  be 
brief.  I  heard  the  prophet  Joseph  Smith  say 
if  the  people  rose  up  and  mobbed  us  and  the 
authorities  countenanced  it,  they  would  have 
mobs  to  their  hearts'  content.  I  heard  him 
say  that  the  time  would  come  when  this  nation 
would  so  far  depart  from  its  original  purity,  its 
glory,  and  its  love  for  freedom,  and  its  protec- 
tion of  civil  and  religious  rights,  that  the  Con- 
stitution of  our  country  would  hang  as  it  were 
by  a  thread.  He  said  also  that  this  people,  the 
sons  of  Zion,  would  rise  up  and  save  the  Con- 
stitution and  bear  it  off  triumphantly. 

I  wish  to  say  to  my  sisters,  to  the  mothers  in 
Israel,  and  to  the  daughters,  cultivate  in  your 
bosoms  the  spirit  of  freedom  and  liberty  which 
has  been  bequeathed  unto  us  by  our  fathers, 
or  grandfathers  I  should  say.  My  grandfather 
fought  in  the  Revolution  and  was  taken  pris- 
oner. He  lay  in  a  filthy  prison  with  a  companion 
who  was  taken  with  him,  and  fed  on  such  a 
scanty  allowance  as  would  scarcely  support 
life.  His  companion  died,  and  for  the  sake  of 
having  his  allowance  of  food  he  covered  him 
up  in  the  bed  and  kept  him  just  as  long  as  he 
dare  to  stay  with  a  decaying  body.  And  the 
spirit  of  freedom  and  liberty  is  what  we  should 
always  cultivate,  and  what  mothers  should 
cultivate  in  the  breasts  of  their  sons,  that  they 
may  grow  up  brave  and  noble,  and  defenders 


8 


of  that  glorious  Constitution  which  has  been 
bequeathed  unto  to  us.  Let  mothers  cultivate 
that  spirit  in  their  own  bosoms.  Let  them 
manifest  their  own  bravery  and  cherish  a  spirit 
of  encountering  difficulties,  because  they  have 
to  be  met  more  or  less  in  every  situation  of 
life.  If  fortitude  and  nobility  of  soul  be  culti- 
vated in  your  own  bosoms  you  will  transmit 
them  to  your  children,  your  sons  will  grow  up 
noble  defenders  of  truth  and  righteousness  and 
heralds  of  salvation  to  the  nations  of  the  earth. 
They  will  be  prepared  to  fill  high  and  respons- 
ible situations  in  religious,  judicial,  civil,  and 
executive  positions.  I  consider  it  most  im- 
portant, my  sisters,  that  we  should  struggle  to 
preserve  the  sacred  Constitution  of  our  country, 
one  of  the  blessings  of  the  Almighty  ;  for  the 
same  spirit  that  inspired  the  prophet  Joseph 
Smith  inspired  the  framers  of  the  Constitution, 
and  we  should  ever  hold  it  sacred  and  bear  it 
off  triumphantly. 

My  sisters,  I  am  happy  to  meet  with  you, 
although  this  is  not  the  occasion  that  we  could 
have  desired  to  meet  together;  at  least  th« 
circumstance  which  has  led  to  the  occasion  is 
one  not  to  be  so  regarded.  Yet  I  am  happy  to 
meet  with  you  ;  and  my  desire  is  that  we  may, 
as  mothers  and  sisters  in  Israel,  defend  truth 
and  righteousness  and  sustain  those  who 
preach  it.  Every  sister  in  this  church  should 
be  a  preacher  of  righteousness,  and  I  think 
we  all  are  ;  I  believe  it  is  our  aim  to  be  such. 
Let  us  be  more  energetic  to  improve  our  minds 
and  develop  that  strength  of  moral  character 
which  cannot  be  surpassed  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  We  should  do  this.  The  circumstances 
in  which  we  are  placed  and  our  positions  in 
life  demand  this  of  us,  because  we  have  greater 
and  higher  privileges  than  any  other  females 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Having  said  so  much  I  will  close  by  saying, 
God  bless  you  and  help  us  all  to  keep  His  holy 
commandments  and  be  valiant  for  the  truth, 
that  whether  life  or  death,  in  life  and  in  death, 
we  may  triumph  over  evil,  and  return  to  the 
presence  of  the  Holy  One  pure,  having  kept 
the  faith  and  finished  our  course,  that  the  crown 
laid  up  for  us  may  be  presented  to  us  in  the 
kingdom  of  our  God  in  the  eternal  world. 
Amen.  ["Amen"  from  the  audience.] 


... 

' 


MRS.  MINER. 

Not  being  a  woman's  rights  woman  or  an 
Anna  Dickinson,  I  feel  some  embarrassment 
in  appearing  before  so  large  an  assembly ;  but 
as  my  chef-ct'ceuvre  of  womanly  excellence  has 
ever  been  those  noble  women  of  the  Revolu- 
tion who  sacrificed  their  personal  ease  and 
comfor.t  and  laid  their  hearts,  as  it  were,  on 
the  altar  of  their  country  by  cheering  and  en- 
couraging their  fathers,  brothers,  husbands, 
and  sons  to  battle,  even  to  the  death,  for  civil 
and  religious  liberty,  I  feel  that  I  should  be 
unworthy  to  mention  their  names  or  claim 
descent  from  revolutionary  sires  were  I  not  to 
raise  my  voice  against  the  worse  than  colonial 
bondage  that  some  are  trying  to  force  upon  us. 
And  for  what?  Because  we  dare  to  worship 
God  and  obey  the  dictates  of  his  revealed  will. 


When  but  a  little  girl  and  full  of  the  import- 
ance of  ancient  history,  I  remember  asking 
a  learned  judge,  whose  pet  I  was,  if  the  laws  of 
Solon  apd  Lycurgus  were  not  the  groundwork 
of  all  legislative  enactments.  His  answer  was, 
"No,  little  miss,  the  Bible  is  the  foundation 
of  the  law  in  all  Christian  lands." 

Now,  the  question  arises,  What  is  there  in  the 
law  of  Moses  or  the  teachings  of  Jesus  that 
forbids  even  seven  women  from  laying  hold  of 
one  man  and  asking  to  be  called  by  his  name 
if  they  wish?  Truly  that  grand  old  poet  and 
inspired  writer  must  have  had  a  view  of  the 
present  time  when  he  said,  "  Woe  unto  them 
that  decree  unrighteous  decrees,  and  that  write 
grievousness  which  they  have  prescribed ;  to 
turn  aside  the  needy  from  judgment  and  to 
take  away  the  right  from  the  poor  of  my  peo-  • 
pie,  that  widows  may  be  their  prey  and  that 
they  may  rob  the  fatherless."  Would  not 
many  a  true-hearted  woman  be  worse  than 
widowed,  !ind(her  children  truly  fatherless,  if 
the  originators  and  endorsers  of  Cragin's  and 
Cullom's  infamous  bills  could  but  achieve 
their  purpose?  While  the  hearts  of  many  of 
my  sisters  are  burning  with  indignation  at  the 
author  of  this  last-named  bill,  I  own  that  mine 
is  filled  with  pity ;  for,  after  having  carefully 
read  it,  I  have  coma  to  the  candid  conclusion 
that  he  never  knew  the  happiness  of  domestic 
life.  I  fancy  I  see  him  looking  from  his  win- 
dow at  some  fair  young  girl  leaning  on  the 
stalwart  arm  of  a  hale  old  gentleman,  her 
grandfather,  her  face  upturned  to  his,  beaming 
with  affection  and  reverence,  meeting  the  look 
of  tenderness  in  return  which  his  withered  and 
perverted  nature  was  incapable  of  understand- 
ing ;  but  judging  their  feelings  by  his  own,  he 
added,  with  an  air  of  triumph,  the  paragraph, 
"No  woman  shall  marry  her  own  grand- 
father." I  must  say  that  section  would  do 
for  the  Comic  Blackstone. 

And  now  to  Congress !  Will  you  deny  to  us, 
the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrim  fathers,  the 
rights  for  which  they  forsook  honors  and  wealth 
in  their  native  land  and  endured  the  hardships 
of  pioneer  life,  or  show  to  the  emigrants  within 
our  borders,  who  have  since  fled  from  the  Old 
World  despotisms,  that  our  Constitution  is  a 
sham  and  our  boasted  liberty  a  lie?  We  trust 
not.  Let  Senators  and  Representatives,  and 
all  our  would-be  benefactors  know  that  we,  the 
daughters  of  Zion,  uphold  our  brethren  by  our 
faith  and  prayers;  that  we  have  no  wrongs  for 
the  outside  world  to  right.  We  need  no  cham- 
pion nor  will  we  accept  of  one !  We  have 
endj-ired  privations  forced  upon  us  by  your- 
selves, and  have  not  feared  them.  Wo  found 
Utah  a  desert,  and  if  necessity  requires  it  we 
have  the  courage  to  leave  it  so. 

Mrs.  Zinah  L).  Young  then  moved  that  the 
meeting  adjourn  sine  die;  which  wus  carried  ; 
and  Mrs.  Phebe  Woodruff  offered  the  closing 
benediction. 

The  old  Tabernacle  was  crowded  with  ladies 
at  this  meeting;  and  as  it  will  comfortably  seat 
five  thousand  persons,  there  could  not  have 
been  fewer  than  between  live  and  six  thousand 
present  on  the  occasion. 


